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The Murder of Gabriel Fernandez

This is an old case summary written February 2020

Please exercise caution when reading this, as there are accounts of very brutal abuse amounting to torture and a child victim. Click images at your own discretion.

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On May 22, 2013 Pearl Fernandez called 911. Her 8-year-old son Gabriel fell and hit his head on a dresser, and now he wasn't breathing. Paramedics arrived at her Palmdale, California apartment to find Gabriel unconscious. They rushed him to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where he was on life support for two days. It was very clear that this was no accidental fall. First responders noted that every single inch of his body had signs of abuse.

Gabriel suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs, a broken nose, and many missing teeth. He had BB pellets embedded in his body - "in his neck, face, lung, legs, buttocks, foot, chest and groin." There were cigarette burns on his neck, feet, and genitals and ligature marks on both ankles. Skin was missing from his neck. He had internal injuries, including a lacerated liver. Cat feces were forced in his mouth and down his throat. Before calling 911, Pearl and her boyfriend, Isuaro Aguirre cleaned up their apartment. They hid Gabriel’s bloody clothes and moved a picture to cover one of the biggest dents in their apartment’s walls. Pearl ordered her 11-year-old daughter to help them clean blood off the floor.

Scalp, Face, Neck, Ears and Shoulder Injuries Documented at Trial (diagam) | Autopsy Injury Diagram (drawing)

Due to over 60 complaints filed against Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre between 2003 and 2012, there were 8 investigations of them by the LA County Child Protective Services and the Department of Children and Family Services. The department deemed all reports unsubstantiated. Despite numerous contacts with the family and calls from Gabriel’s first grade teacher, DCFS determined all was well.

Two years before Gabriel was born, Pearl was investigated after she and Gabriel’s older brother were in a car accident where her son suffered a head injury because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. In 2004, a relative filed a complaint with CPS claiming that Pearl was beating that son. This was deemed unfounded. In 2007 a complaint against Pearl claimed she didn’t feed one of her daughters and threatened to break her jaw if she cried. She was convicted of using a weapon in a reckless manner and sentenced to two weeks in a Texas jail. Pearl abandoned her youngest child, Destiny, and lost custody of a son older than Gabriel, named Arnold Jr.

Shortly after Gabriel’s birth in 2005, he went to live with his maternal grandmother, because Pearl “did not want Gabriel and had no love for” him. Suddenly, Pearl wanted custody back in October 2012. She claimed to social workers that she had concerns about how he was being treated but family members say she wanted Gabriel’s welfare benefits. Gabriel’s grandmother objected, telling deputies that Pearl neglected and abused her children. Still, Pearl received custody of Gabriel. His father, Arnold Contreras, was in and out of jail but thought Gabriel’s maternal grandparents would be watching over him.

Gabriel was either tardy or absent a lot. When he was in school, he would kick other students. On the rare occasion he went outside during recess, he stood alone on the playground and kicked a wall. During Red Ribbon Week, when teachers talk to children about staying drug-free, Gabriel mimicked snorting cocaine and knew it was a drug. Gabriel asked his teacher, Jennifer Garcia, if it was normal for moms to hit their kids. She said yes because some parents spank their children, but asked him again about it at recess. He then asked if it was normal for moms to hit kids with a belt buckle and make you bleed. During a parent-teacher meeting, Pearl said without prompting, “I don’t hit my kids.” Garcia told Pearl that Gabriel was smart and a good writer, but she didn’t think Pearl believed her. Gabriel would cry at the end of the day because he didn’t want to go home.

Jennifer Garcia began calling social workers in 2012. She reported that Gabriel’s face and hands had bruises from strikes with a belt buckle. He came to school with scratches, a split lip, and a swollen bruised face. Pearl admitted to hitting him with the belt. Neither caseworker Kevin Bom nor case manager Stefanie Rodriguez felt the bruising was grounds for a doctor’s visit or Gabriel’s removal from the home. They did ask Pearl and Isauro to take a drug test after the Red Ribbon Week incident, but the results were negative.

On November 26th, 2012 Gabriel showed up to class late. His classmates laughed and pointed when they saw him. His hair cut was awful and sloppy, and chunks of his scalp had scabbed over. Garcia told Gabriel to tell other kids to mind their own business when they asked him what had happened. Garcia called the principal to have him look at Gabriel’s head. He told her that they don’t investigate, they report. Garcia called Gabriel’s caseworker, Rodriguez, on two different numbers and left messages. A few days later, Gabriel came to school with a split lip from Pearl punching him in the mouth. Garcia called Rodriguez again, pressing her about what she was doing to help Gabriel. Due to confidentiality rules, Rodriguez could say nothing.

Towards the end of January, when Gabriel came to class, there was no more laughing. The other children were silent. His eyes were swollen, his face dotted with bruises. When Garcia first questioned Gabriel about his injuries, he lied to her and told her he fell. He finally admitted that Pearl shot him in the face with a BB gun. He lied because whenever a social worker would visit his punishments would increase.

On January 29, 2013 Rodriguez made a final visit to Fernandez’s home. Gabriel told her that the bruises on his face were because he had fallen while playing tag. Rodriguez recommended that Gabriel and Pearl take part in Voluntary Family Maintenance, which allows children to remain in the home while the family works to resolve their issues. The department was using it on parents who weren’t eligible instead of only low risk cases as intended.

On February 27th, 2013 therapist Carmen Le Norgant discussed with Pearl suicide notes Gabriel had written. One, addressed to his mother, said, “I love you so much that I will die.” Others stated he wanted to kill himself. He told Le Norgant that he was serious. Le Norgant informed social worker Patricia Clement and Palmdale’s LAC DCFS supervisor Greg Merritt. They did nothing. Le Norgant also called 911, but the officer who visited the home left without even talking to Gabriel. On March 26th, 2013 therapist intern Barbara Dixon filed a report that Gabriel claimed a relative forced him to perform oral sex on them. When social workers interviewed him about that allegation, Pearl was present, and Gabriel took back each of his stories.

According to the next worker assigned to Gabriel’s case, Patricia Clement claimed that new abuse allegations were already being dealt with and that she was going to close the case because there were no concerns at the moment. Despite their risk level being “very high,” Merritt manually changed the level to “moderate” and closed the case.

On April 26th, 2013 a security guard at the local welfare office, Arturo Martinez, noticed that Gabriel needed urgent help. Pearl was yelling at Gabriel, who had cigarette burns on his head and neck and marks on his wrists from being tied up. Martinez told Pearl to quiet down. Gabriel has a black eye, there were lumps on the back of his head, and his skin was almost yellow. Pearl rushed out of the office with her children, blocking Martinez’ view of Gabriel as she did. Martinez asked Maricela Corona, the clerk Pearl had spoken to, if she planned to report child abuse. Corona was only filling in that day and, though reluctant, talked to a supervisor who told her not to get involved. Martinez called his own supervisor who explained that was not in his job description. Corona then gave Martinez the family’s name and contact information, telling Martinez to “save this kid.” He called DCFS twice, but could not navigate the automated system. He called 911, but his situation was not an emergency. He called the non-emergency line to report. Martinez later learned that a deputy had visited the home and found nothing wrong.

Around this time, Gabriel came to class looking even worse than he ever had before. A red eye; his face, neck, and ear marked and bruised; his forehead skin was peeling. Garcia asked Gabriel if he wanted to take part in that day’s assignment or not, which was making a Mother’s Day card. He wanted to, and worked very hard on it. The card, shaped like a house, said “Open the door to see who loves you” with his picture glued inside. Garcia called Rodriguez and left yet another message. Rodriguez made no entry of this call.

Gabriel at School Just Before Mother's Day

One week before his death, Gabriel’s school, Summerwind Elementary, asked a sheriff’s deputy to investigate, but he received the wrong address. When he reached Pearl on the phone she told him that Gabriel had moved to Texas with his grandmother. Whether he tried or even had time to follow up on this claim is unknown. On May 22nd, 2013 paramedics rushed Gabriel to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles but doctors pronounced him braindead the same day. He was on life support until May 24th, 2013. Due to the amount of injuries to his body, the autopsy took two days.

In June 2018, after five hours of deliberation, jurors found Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre guilty of murder and torture. Fernandez pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty and received a sentence of life in prison without parole. Aguirre received the death sentence. Judge Lomeli denied an automatic motion to reduce the jury’s recommendation of a death sentence for Aguirre to life in prison without the possibility of parole, citing the “repeated beating, binding, burning and starving” of Gabriel.

During their trials, it came to light that Isuaro Aguirre forced Gabriel to eat spoiled food and cat feces as well as his own vomit, and locked him in a cabinet with a sock in his mouth and handcuffs around his ankles to sleep. The family called this cabinet “the cubby.” Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami claimed that Aguirre hated Gabriel because he thought he may be gay. Aguirre would call him gay, punish him if he played with dolls, and even made Gabriel wear girls’ clothing to school. Shortly before his death, Gabriel spent most of his time at home in “the cubby” with no access to food or water and no bathroom breaks. His older brother Ezequiel would try to sneak bananas through the padlocked door. If he didn’t beat Gabriel, Pearl and Isauro would threaten him, so he would whisper to Gabriel to fall quickly so he didn’t have to hit him as much. Isuaro and Pearl even pepper sprayed Gabriel the night before he died.

After the death of Gabriel Fernandez, LAC DCFS terminated four social workers for their failure to help him. The four also had criminal charges filed against them. In 2016, Stefanie Rodriguez and Patricia Clement, two former LA County social workers, as well as two supervisors, Kevin Bom and Gregory Merritt, were charged with one felony count each of child abuse and falsifying public records. They each faced up to ten years in prison if found guilty. Judge Mary Lou Villar stated that each defendant should have noticed the danger Gabriel was in and requested he be removed from the home, or at the very least ordered a medical examination. Villar also stated that the defendants should have documented Gabriel Fernandez’s injuries and that their actions were “incompatible with the proper regard for human life.”

Counselor Barbara Dixon testified that while working at Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services, which handled Gabriel’s case, she did not report suspected abuse despite being legally required to report these suspicions. Dixon’s boss, Michael Bailey, allegedly told her not to report the abuse and later, supervisors told her not to cooperate with police regarding his death. DCFS never learned about these injuries while Gabriel was alive. Dixon claimed she did report an allegation of sexual abuse by someone outside the home. This investigation was ongoing when Gabriel died. Dixon and Hathaway-Sycamores also handled the very similar case in 2018 when 10-year-old Anthony Avalos died after his mother and her boyfriend abused him.

Since Gabriel’s death and the subsequent review, DCFS has hired more than 1,000 caseworkers, provided staff with smartphones, started new methods of training, and changed the standards for the Voluntary Family Maintenance program. Arturo Martinez, the security guard, asked to transfer to another office because he could not continue to work with the same people who had refused to help Gabriel. In that time, “at least 143 children in Los Angeles County have died from abuse or neglect after having some prior history with DCFS.”

In January 2020 California 2nd District Court of Appeals threw out the charges against the four former social workers. The appellate opinion noted that although they may have failed in their duties as social workers there was no probable cause for a criminal case. The District Attorney may appeal this decision.

On February 26th 2020, Netflix released a documentary called The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. Director Brian Knappenberger documents the investigation into the months of abuse preceding his murder as well as the trial against his mother and her boyfriend. The documentary looks into the failures of the Los Angeles County DCFS system.

To this day, Jennifer Garcia reserves the #28 in her classroom. It will always be Gabriel's number.

SOURCES: The Atlantic | LA Times 1 | LA times 2 | LA Times 3 | LA Daily News | Oprah Magazine | NBC LA | ABC | Bom et al. vs. LA County

#true crime #los angeles #gabriel fernandez #murder #child victim #dcfs